NVIDIA Corporation's (NVDA.US) self-driving ambitions: From the ground to the sky, the next growth engine of the all-powerful Core Emperor.

At the GTC conference held in Washington, NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) unveiled a "super hardcore" new product and roadmap covering seven major areas including AI, quantum computing, open source models, American manufacturing, enterprise computing, Siasun Robot&Automation, and 6G. The stock price surged by about 5%, hitting a new all-time high, with a total market value nearing $5 trillion. However, in this "omnipotent show", the strategic layout of NVIDIA Corporation in the field of autonomous driving is particularly eye-catching: from planning to deploy 100,000 autonomous taxis with Uber Technologies, Inc. (UBER.US), to partnering with Lucid (LCID.US) to integrate L4 level capability into high-end passenger vehicles, and planning to move IGX Thor onto Joby Aviation's (JOBY.US) eVTOL. Below, let us break down this "autonomous driving game" from the road to the sky. 100,000 Robotaxi Computing Base: Uber Technologies, Inc. hands over the key to autonomous driving scale to NVIDIA Corporation NVIDIA Corporation once again pushed the "abacus" of autonomous driving to the forefront of mobility platforms. In January of this year, the company initiated deep technical collaboration with Uber Technologies, Inc. - Uber Technologies, Inc. provided some operational data to help NVIDIA Corporation refine AI models and chips. In less than a year, the two parties presented a more ambitious landing plan at the GTC Washington site: Uber Technologies, Inc. plans to deploy up to 100,000 Robotaxis based on Drive AGX Hyperion starting from 2027, and plans to entrust production to potential manufacturing partners like Stellantis and Foxconn starting in 2028, with the first batch of deliveries numbering at least 5,000 vehicles, focusing on the United States first and then extending globally. For NVIDIA Corporation, this not only means gaining a major customer, but also signifies that its chips, sensor kits, and software tools will be embedded into the daily operations of the mobility giant, creating a sustainable and replicable revenue stream. Furthermore, economies of scale are the core chips in NVIDIA Corporation's layout. Uber Technologies, Inc. has already specified that the 100,000 vehicle target includes 20,000 Lucid Gravity and Nuro models confirmed in July, with the remaining gap open to over a dozen existing or potential partners - Avride, May Mobility, Momenta, Pony.ai, WeRide, etc., all can supply based on the same Drive platform. In this way, NVIDIA Corporation can rapidly expand chip shipments without additional investment in scene construction. Meanwhile, Uber Technologies, Inc. has pledged to establish a "Siasun Robot&Automation Taxi Data Factory," returning 3 million hours of exclusive driving data within three years, with NVIDIA Corporation providing processors, AI models, data screening, and simulation tools, completing a full loop from annotation, scene mining to synthetic data generation. The faster the algorithm iterates and the shorter the chip upgrade cycle, the more solid NVIDIA Corporation's bargaining power in the L4 level autonomous driving market. Another noteworthy aspect is the extension of the business path. Uber Technologies, Inc. will be responsible for end-to-end fleet management of these vehicles, including remote assistance, charging, cleaning, maintenance, and customer service. Through the unified hardware platform, NVIDIA Corporation not only gains high-frequency, multi-scenario feedback data, but also provides mass-produced samples for downstream OEMs. For NVIDIA Corporation, once the fleet of 100,000 vehicles lands as scheduled, it will have the first "mobility platform-level" L4 validation case. From luxury cars to autonomous vehicles dual-track sprint: Lucid uses NVIDIA Corporation DRIVE AV to integrate L4 into high-end passenger vehicles? NVIDIA Corporation has added another ally, and the gap in the autonomous driving high-end passenger vehicle market is expected to be closed. Lucid Group announced on Tuesday that it will develop an L4 level autonomous driving solution based on NVIDIA Corporation's DRIVE AV platform, with the initial project targeting the current Gravity SUV to push driver assistance functions to a higher level; then switching to the next generation DRIVE AV full stack, relying on a fusion architecture of cameras, radar, and lidar, to achieve the "fully driverless" L4 capability. This partnership path reflects NVIDIA Corporation's progressive verification strategy from driver assistance to fully autonomous driving, achieving technological iteration and data accumulation on the Lucid Gravity SUV, ultimately using the DRIVE AV platform to develop L4 capabilities and verify the feasibility of its hardware integration in passenger vehicles. This process not only promotes the commercialization of autonomous driving technology, but also provides crucial support for NVIDIA Corporation's technical layout in the Deluxe Corporation vehicle market. Lucid's interim CEO Marc Winterhoff did not provide a timeline for implementation, but clearly stated that bringing this technology to consumers is a top priority for the company. Lucid stated that future restyled models can access the DRIVE AV system via OTA, and current Air and Gravity models can also access the system via OTA when they are restyled in the future. In addition, Lucid has adopted a dual-track strategy of "consumer passenger vehicles + autonomous taxi fleet": partnering with Uber Technologies, Inc. and Nuro to develop a fleet of 20,000 Gravity SUV autonomous taxis, while internally developing L4 technology. Through this cooperation, NVIDIA Corporation verifies the practical integration capability of its hardware platform in the passenger vehicle field and covers both the consumer market and mobility service scenarios. Overall, through Uber Technologies, Inc.'s coverage of autonomous taxi and delivery fleets, as well as Lucid's coverage of consumer passenger vehicles, NVIDIA Corporation achieves full-scenario coverage from B-end to C-end. Moreover, Uber Technologies, Inc.'s data resources and Lucid's vehicle platform complement each other, and NVIDIA Corporation reduces the risk of a single path through a multi-partner strategy, accelerating technological iteration and commercialization processes. Moving autonomous driving to the skies: Joby Aviation plans to equip IGX Thor, allowing eVTOL urban air commuting to also leverage NVIDIA Corporation's computing power It is worth mentioning that NVIDIA Corporation has moved the "chessboard" of autonomous driving from the ground to the sky, with its partnership with Joby Aviation being the latest move. According to publicly available information, Joby is collaborating with NVIDIA Corporation to advance the development of the company's autonomous flight technology "Superpilot" by integrating NVIDIA Corporation's IGX Thor computing platform. With the support of NVIDIA Corporation's Blackwell architecture, IGX Thor aims to power the next generation of physical artificial intelligence applications. By combining IGX Thor with Joby Aviation's aircraft design and flight testing capabilities, NVIDIA Corporation and Joby Aviation can accelerate the development of autonomous aviation technology. With advanced computing capabilities, this aircraft will be able to independently determine, request, and follow the best flight routes, adapt to weather conditions, air traffic control instructions, or emergencies, and even make judgments similar to human intuition. Additionally, the platform will enable the aircraft to predict when system components need maintenance, and alert the crew before the components fail. Following the announcement of the collaboration, Joby Aviation's stock price rose by over 10% in after-hours trading. With this move, NVIDIA Corporation extends the application scenarios of its autonomous driving hardware from ground vehicles to urban air transportation, adding another use case to its autonomous driving product line.